Tag Archives: Reconstruction

not a lost cause

Apparently 150 years ago a former Virginia governor and Confederate general was not buying into the Lost Cause theory. From The New-York Times on October 26, 1866: The celebration at Winchester to-day was an entire success, if a large crowd … Continue reading

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straw gazing

Back in 1866 Henry J. Raymond was a U.S. Congressman from New York and publisher of The New-York Times. Mr. Raymond was a moderate Republican, who generally favored President Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction policy of readmitting Southern states to the Union … Continue reading

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General Butler for Congress

About a week after a similar gathering in Cleveland a Soldiers and Sailors Convention met in Pittsburgh on September 25 and 26, 1866. Unlike the Cleveland meeting the Pittsburgh convention was strongly pro-Congress and anti-President Johnson. According to the September … Continue reading

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“Egotistic to the point of mental disease”

Way back in April 1866 and probably at least in part responding to President Johnson’s February 19th veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau bill and his belligerent attitude in a Washington’s Birthday message, a The Atlantic Monthly, VOL. XVII.—APRIL, 1866—NO. 102 … Continue reading

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one nationality

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in September 1866: The Second Campaign for the Union. The noblest soldiers in the army of the Union, assembled in convention at Cleveland on Monday, the 17th, inst., for the purpose of giving … Continue reading

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straggling home

150 years ago today President Andrew Johnson’s Swing Around the Circle tour concluded. According to the September 16, 1866 issue of the The New-York Times crowds in York Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Washington were mostly supportive with no reported heckling. From … Continue reading

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cornerstone ceremonies

150 years ago today Andrew Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle” made it to Chicago for the ostensible purpose of the tour – to participate in the ceremonies laying the cornerstone of the Stephen A. Douglas monument. The actual laying of … Continue reading

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short stop

On September 1, 1866 President Andrew Johnson’s swing around the circle tour stopped at a small town in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was just a six minute stop as the train slowly progressed across the Empire … Continue reading

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train trip

150 years ago today President Andrew Johnson and a group of federal dignitaries began what would become known as the Swing Around the Circle, an eighteen day or so speaking tour in which President Johnson took his case to audiences … Continue reading

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brotherly love again?

On August 14-17 a National Union Convention was held in Philadelphia. Although a new mega-party of Democrats and moderate Republicans was not achieved, it was hoped that the convention would stir up public support for President Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policy … Continue reading

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